Pretty Little Lying Hearts - Season One
by KaliBomb8910
Summary: This story takes the Kingdom Hearts characters into the lives of Pretty Little Liars. This will not be the exact story. I'm going to change it up a bit. A year after the disappearance of the Queen Bee and their best friend Aqua; Kairi, Olette, Namine and Xion receive eerie texts with the signature -X and they have no clue who it could be. Pairings; SxK, OxH, XxRi, RoxN
1. Cast

**Pretty Little Lying Hearts – Season One**

**Cast**

Hanna Marin – Kairi Marin

Aria Montgomery – Xion Montgomery

Spencer Hastings – Namine Hastings

Emily Fields – Olette Fields

Ezra Fitz – Riku Fitz

Caleb Rivers – Sora Rivers

Toby Cavanaugh – Roxas Cavanaugh

(Instead of Paige McCullers and Maya St. Germain, I'm gonna put Hayner McCullers because I don't see Olette being a lesbian. I have nothing against lesbians at all. I just don't see it. I may make her bi because it'll fit into the story more.)

Paige & Maya – Hayner McCullers

Alison DiLaurentis – Aqua DiLaurentis

Jenna Marshall – Larxene Marshall

Ian Thomas – Isa Thomas

Mona Vanderwaal – Selphie Vanderwaal

Melissa Hastings – Aerith Hastings

Noel Kahn – Lea Kahn

Lucas Gottesman – Demyx Gottesman

Mike Montgomery – Tidus Montgomery

Darren Wilden – Braig Wilden

Alex Santiago – Wakka Santiago

Wren Kingston (Sean Ackard too) – Seifer Kingston

Garrett Reynolds – Cloud Reynolds

The rest of the characters such as parents and minors I will be keeping their names the same. This is not an exact story of Pretty Little Liars but more like if the KH characters were put into the Liars story.


	2. Signed by X

I changed the cast up a little bit. I do plan doing this differently but for right now, it'll be pretty much the same story. It'll be really different once Sora comes in. I know the characters may not seem accurate to their personalities but I matched Kairi and Hanna because they're both my favorite and I have plans for Kairi and Sora once he comes in. Also I can see Kairi having low self esteem and then suddenly becoming the most popular girl. Xion I cast as Aria because I feel like they have the same emotional level if she was put into this situation. Aqua I could see as the leader if they were a group. Olette seems sporty to me so I cast her as Emily. Namine and Spencer both are smart and I feel like they're alike because Namine helped Roxas out in KH2 and that reminds me of Spencer in a way. Anyway I hope you enjoy and everyone's opinions are welcome!

**Pretty Little Lying Hearts – Season One**

**Episode – Pilot**

Twilight Town

It was a dark, windy night and Aqua DiLaurentis was hurrying to her friend, Namine's barn for drinks and a sleepover. "Damn wind." She muttered as it tried to push her over. She made it to the door and heard her four best friends giggling. She wanted to really freak them out so she pushed the door a bit, just enough to move it. She heard one of them yell, "Guys!" Aqua pushed open the door and screamed. "Gotcha!"

"That's not funny Aqua!" Namine yelled.

"I thought it was hilarious." She said back.

"Aqua, did you download the new Beyonce video yet?" Kairi asked.

"Not yet." Aqua said.

"I'm loving her new video." Said Olette.

"Maybe a little too much." Giggled Aqua.

Olette just sat back and kept her mouth shut and blushed.

"Your turn." Said Namine, giving the cup to Xion.

"Take too much and you'll tell us all your secrets." Kairi laughed.

"Friends share secrets. That's what keeps us close." Aqua said. "Drink up!"

Later that night…

Xion woke up and looked around. She only saw Kairi and Olette.

"Olette, wake up!" She said, shaking her.

"Where's Aqua and Namine?" Olette asked.

"I don't know."

Kairi suddenly awoke. She looked around and noticed something wasn't right. A shadow appeared through the door and Namine came wandering in.

"She's gone." Namine said, shaken.

"What do you mean she's gone?" Olette asked.

"I've looked everywhere for her. I think I heard her scream." She said. The three girls starred at her and they all stood there, not knowing what to think or do.

A year later…

Xion Montgomery stood in her room and starred at herself in the mirror. She heard a knock at the door and turned around. Her mother,Ella, stood there, concerned.

"Are you okay Xion?"

"Yea it's just weird to be home."

"We were only gone for a year."

"I know but when you're 16, that's a long time. I still think about her every day."

"Why don't you call your friends, you five were inseperable."

Another voice popped into the room. "I need a ride to lacrosse today." It was Xion's little brother, Tidus.

"I'll take him." Xion said. She followed her mother and Tidus downstairs. There was a bunch of packed boxes in living room. Tidus began searching through them. Their father, Byron, entered the room, coffee in hand.

"Got lacrosse today?" He asked Tidus. Tidus nodded and began rummaging through the boxes again. "It's first try outs and my stuff is in a hundred boxes."

"A hundred?" His mom said.

"You know what I mean." He said.

"I'll help you look in the garage." Ella said as they walked out the door. Byron walked towards Xion.

"Listen, I know coming back here brings up a lot of memories. You okay?" He asked.

"Dad, I'm still keeping your secret okay?" She said.

"I mean are you okay about Aqua?" Before she could answer Ella and Tidus walked back into the house. Xion quickly went out the door and Tidus followed. Ella and Byron hugged as they watched their kids run to the car.

"And they're out the door. We're officially home." Ella said with a smile on her face.

Xion drove up to the school and Tidus hopped out of the car. Xion stopped him. "What time am I picking you up?"

"Six." He responded.

"Okay, I'm gonna grab some food." Tidus ran into the school and Xion drove away. Xion pulled into the parking lot of a pub and got out of her car. She walked in and sat down at the bar.

"Can I get a cheeseburger please?" She asked the bartender.

"You got it." He said.

Xion looked up and saw a missing picture of Aqua on the wall.

"You alright there?" A man next to her asked.

"I'm a bit jetlagged. I just got back from another world."

"What other world?" He asked.

"Destiny Islands." She responded.

"I spent some time at one of the islands, before I went to Traverse Town. Great city."

"So do you go to Sunset?" Xion asked.

"Just graduated. I'm going to start my first teaching job."

"I think I'd like to teach." A song began playing on the radio. "God, I love this song."

"B26. What's your major?" He asked.

"Uh, well, I'm leaning towards English."

"That's what I'm teaching."

"Well, I write too. But that's more personal. It's just for me."

"I'd like to read something of yours."

"Yeah? Really?"

"Yeah. You're smart, you've traveled. Great taste in Music. I'd like to know more about you."

"Yeah, I'd like to know more about you too." She said and smiled.

Xion sat on the sink counter while the man had his hands on her hips, kissing her. She wrapped her arms around him. She hadn't felt like this before. She didn't even know his name but something just felt so right. Maybe because of everything going on, she just wanted to feel good for once.

Twilight Mall

Kairi picked up a pair of sunglasses and tried them on. She pointed into the glass case.

"Could I see the pradas in the front?" She asked the salesman.

"I'll have to put some back." He said.

"But they're all maybes." She said smiling.

Another girl, by the name of Selphie walked up behind with a scarf around her neck.

"Hey is this me?" She asked Kairi.

"Or is it a little too much your mother?" She said, smirking.

"I am loving those glasses. How much?"

"$350." She replied.

Kairi looks up and spots Namine looking at clothes.

"I'll be right back." She says to the salesman. She walks up the escalator and approaches Namine.

"I cannot believe Namine Hastings has time to shop. I mean you're interning for the mayor, taking classes at Sunset and redoing the barn. And in your leisure moments you facebook and tweet." Kairi said.

Namine looked at her and smiled. "You know I stay busy."

"It's called summer vacation, Nam."

"You spent yours sunning and shopping."

"Tweet-tweet." Kairi smiled.

"Did you see the paper today?" Namine asked.

"Yeah." Kairi suddenly seemed sad.

"She's gone but she's everywhere."

"I can't believe it's been a year."

"Do you remember what Aqua said about secrets keeping us close? I think it's the opposite."

Kairi perked up trying to change the subject. "So! What's the occasion?" She asked.

"Family dinner. We're meeting Aerith's fiancé."

"Did Ms. Perfect find a Mr. Perfect?"

"He's a med student so everyone is thrilled."

"Then that's not the right top, you need to turn heads." Kairi said taking the shirt out of Namine's hands. Kairi pulls out a different top and hands it to Namine.

"Away from Aerith? Please."

"She doesn't always have to win. See you on the playground." Kairi said putting the sunglasses over her eyes.

"See you." Namine said as she approached the cashier. Kairi walked out of the store. "Miss!" She stopped dead in her tracks, shaking. She turned around to face a security officer. "You forgot your bag." He said and handed it to her. She felt relieved and took her bag. "Thank you!" She said. The officer walked back to his post and Selphie came running up behind Kairi.

"Oh my god, I thought you were busted!" Selphie said.

"Nice scarf." Kairi said.

"Nice sunglasses."

The next day…

Byron was driving Xion and Tidus to school. He pulled up to the front and Tidus hopped out of the car. "Later!" He said. "Good luck!" Said Byron. Xion was about to get out but Byron stopped her.

"You know I love you right?"

"Yeah, I know." She said.

"And you know I love your mother?"

"Do you?" Xion asked.

"I made a mistake, okay? And I will be sorry about it for the rest of my life. I just hope someday you'll be able to forgive me."

"Yeah, I hope so too." Xion said.

**Flash Back**

Aqua and Xion were walking down the street eating sea salt ice cream. Selphie came running up behind them.

"Aqua! Xion!"

"Hey, do you hear Selphie?" Xion asked Aqua.

"Hey Xion!" Selphie yelled again.

"Maybe we should wait." Said Xion.

"Aqua! Wait for me!"

"Oh my god, will she ever get the clue? What a loser. Come here!" Aqua said.

Aqua and Xion ran behind some bushes and stood in front of a car. Aqua looked at it.

"Isn't that your dad's car?" Aqua asked.

Xion looked at it and saw her dad with another woman, who was not her mother, kissing her. Byron looked at Xion and she stood there in shock.

**End Flash Back**

Xion walked up to the school and heard her name.

"Xion?" Xion turned around and saw Olette.

"Olette!"

"When did you get back?" Olette asked as she approached her.

"Yesterday." Xion replied.

"I almost didn't recognize you. The last time I saw you, you had a pink stripe in your hair."

"Well, when your parents want you to be yourself and you don't know who you are…"

"You wore it well. You should have called. It's so weird just running into you."

"Oh, well. We kind of lost touch, remember Olette?"

"That's what we had to do." Olette frowned.

"I saw a poster of Aqua yesterday."

"It's awful. I mean we all know she's dead."

"I just never heard anyone say it before."

Olette and Xion walked into the school and chatted on the way to their class.

"So I heard the new English teacher is really hot." Olette said.

Xion looked over and saw Kairi.

"Is that Kairi?" Xion asked Olette.

"She's the 'it' girl now." Olette said.

"Wow, talk about a makeover."

Kairi waved to the girls and turned her head back.

"What's up with her? Are you two fighting?" Xion asked.

Selphie walked in over to Kairi. "And where there's Kairi, there's Selphie too."

"That's Selphie?"

"Can you believe it?" Olette said. "We didn't just fall out of touch with you, Xion. We all fell out of touch." Namine walked in the room and sat in the front row. After her, in comes the new teacher. He writes his name on the board, 'Riku Fitz'. He turns around to face the class and all anyone hears out of him was, "Holy crap." Xion looked up and dropped her pencil and starred at him with wide eyes. Then her phone rings and she quickly pulls it out to shut it off. "Sorry." She says.

"Um…I'm Mr. Fitz, your new English teacher. Xion reads the text she got quickly. She looked puzzled.

_Maybe he fools around with students all of the time. A lot of teachers do. Just ask your dad. -X_

"X?" She questions herself.

Olette stands in the kitchen with her mom, Pam, while she prepares a basket.

"I can't believe they sold the house." Olette says.

"It's just too many memories for that family. I can't even imagine." Pam says.

"It's just so weird to think of someone else living there."

"I know, honey." Pam says with a concerned face.

"Xion's back." Olette said.

"Does she still have that pink hair?" Pam asked.

"No, mom. She doesn't."

"You know something? I never understood that family. Why would they let their daughter do something like that?"

"Because they believe their kids are equals, not their property."

"Honey, I don't believe your my property. What kind of mother lets their child run around looking like a goth? That kind of lifestyle might fly in Destiny Islands but you won't make it far in Twilight Town."

"Not everyone dreams of making it in Twilight Town."

Pam huffed and handed Olette the basket. "Will you bring this basket over to our new neighbors?"

"Sure." Olette said and grabbed the basket. She walked out of the house and headed towards Aqua's old house. Once she made it to the house, she noticed boxes of Aqua's old things. She started looking through it.

"Hey, do you want any of that?" Olette looked up and heard a voice.

"Yuffie St. Germain."

"I'm Olette. Welcome to the neighborhood." She said and handed her the basket. Yuffie looked at it with a funny face. "My mom made it."

"I figured as much. Oh, all that stuff was in my room. I think it belonged to the girl who used to live here."

"Yeah, Aqua." Olette said.

"Was she a friend of yours?"

"Yeah. A long time ago."

"That's all? No details." Yuffie asked. Olette shook her head.

"Okay, well would it be outrageous if I asked you to help with a couple boxes?" Yuffie asked.

"Yes, but I don't mind." Olette said. Yuffie and Olette grabbed a couple boxes and headed up to her room.

"So why aren't you and Aqua still friends?" Yuffie asked.

"You ask a lot of questions." Olette said.

"How else am I supposed to get to know you?"

"There you go, another question."

"Fine, ask me anything." Yuffie said. Olette turned around and grabbed a picture off her dresser.

"Is this your boyfriend?"

"Yea, but he lives 3,000 miles away."

"My boyfriend's name is Pence. He's a swimmer like me."

"I bet your good, you totally have the body. So, if you're a big jock would kill me if I smoked a little bit of weed?"

"No, go ahead."

"You want to join me?"

"Sure."

"Is this your first time?"

Olette shook her head no but then shook her head yes.

"So I'm corrupting you? You okay with that?"

"Yeah, I think so." Olette said and smiled.

Namine's house

Namine walks towards the barn and sees Aerith come out.

"Hey, what do you think?" Namine asked.

"Honestly when mom said you were converting the barn into a loft, I couldn't see it. But it's beautiful, job well done."

"Thank you, I'm glad you like it."

"And Cloud and I really appreciate that your letting us stay in it until our place is done."

"Wait, what?"

"Cloud and I are going to be staying here."

"No, this was the deal I made with mom and dad. I did the internship and I got the grades."

"Well, you're just gonna have to wait." Aerith said sternly. Cloud came wandering out of the barn.

"Is everything okay? Hi, I'm Cloud." He said, introducing himself to Namine.

Namine walked away with her arms folded.

"Sounds like she was counting on moving into the barn." Cloud said.

"Don't worry about Namine."

Later that evening…

Namine sat outside, drawing in her sketchbook. Cloud came out and lit a cigarette.

"Shouldn't you know better? You are a med student, after all?" Namine asked.

"You're a bit of a smart ass." Cloud said.

"A bit? Does my sister know you smoke?"

"Does she have to know everything? I'm sorry about the barn. Do you want me to say something?"

"It wouldn't make a difference. Thank you for being sorry. You're not like Aerith's other boyfriends."

"How so?"

"We're late for dinner."Namine said as she put her sketchbook down. She turned and looked at him. "I actually like you. That's what's different."

Next day at school…

Xion walked into an empty classroom. There at the desk sat Riku. Xion approached him. Riku looked at her.

"You told me you went to Sunset?" He asked.

"No I told you I was thinking about it." Xion said.

"Look, I think you're amazing Xion but…"

Xion took Riku's hand. Riku looked up at her.

"I'm teacher." He said.

"I know it's not just me. You feel like this is right too."

"It's not right, we just can't." He said. Riku got up and walked out of the classroom leaving Xion there, hurt. Why does it feel like once something goes good for me, it slaps me back in the face?

Olette and Yuffie walked down the street. Their hands touched and Olette retreated hers back.

"Thanks for walking me home." Yuffie said.

"It's no big deal, practice doesn't start until 4."

"I've never had a jock friend before. That makes you my first." Yuffie smiled.

Olette watched the garbage men throw Aqua's boxes into the truck. She stood there in disbelief. They were treating her things like trash. Like Aqua was never here or that she didn't matter. She was just one more person to the world and now, possibly one less.

"Are you okay?" Yuffie asked her.

"Yeah, I never actually told you about the girl who used to live here."

"Aqua?"

"Yeah, we were best friends and my other three friends. She disappeared last summer and we all fell out of touch."

"That's awful."

"I used to think if I didn't talk about her, I wouldn't think about her."

"But you still do?" Yuffie asked and Olette shook her head.

"I'm sorry." Yuffie said.

Yuffie looked at Olette and she looked at her. Yuffie pecked Olette on the lips quick. They moved back, embarrassed.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Olette said.

"Yeah, I'll see you too." Yuffie said as Olette quickly walked away and back to the school for swim practice.

After Practice in the Locker Room

Olette had a towel wrapped around her and walked towards her locker. Namine came up behind her.

"So have you been hanging out with Xion?"

"No, not really." Olette replied.

Olette opened her locker and a letter fell out. Olette picked it up and read it.

_I see you have found another girl to kiss. –X_

Olette starred at it in shock.

"Hey Olette, are you okay?" Namine asked.

"Yea, I'm fine."Olette said and quickly hid the note.

Namine's house…

Namine walked into her kitchen with a swimsuit on and a towel over her shoulder. She went to the fridge and grabbed a drink. Cloud walked in after her with swim trunks on.

"Perfect time for Jacuzzi." He said.

"I thought you guys weren't moving in till next week." Namine said.

"Aerith wanted to get settled in before her classes start. Do you have a towel I can use?" He asked and Namine handed it to him. Namine started rubbing her neck.

"Tough day?" Cloud asked.

"Yea, field hockey practice."

"I can help, if you want."

"Okay." Namine said.

Cloud started massaging Namine's neck. Namine closed her eyes.

"Wow, that's awesome."

"Cloud!" They heard Aerith call. Namine took her towel and ran out the doors. Aerith walked into the kitchen. "Was Namine just in here?" She asked.

"Yeah, she just went outside."

"Hmph." Aeirth mumbled, folding her arms. She didn't trust Namine, not after last time. Later that night, Namine sat in her room at her computer desk. She heard voices outside and peaked out the window. She saw Aerith and Cloud kissing. She heard her computer go off and looked at it. She had received a new email and she opened it.

_Poor Namine, always going after Aerith's boyfriends. But remember, if you kiss I tell. –X_

"What the hell?" Namine muttered.

**Flash Back**

Namine, Kairi and Aqua stood in Namine's kitchen with their swimsuits on. Kairi reaches for a cookie. Aqua stops her.

"Are you sure you wanna do that, hun?" Aqua asked. Kairi looked at her with a frown. "I'm just trying to be a friend, Kai." Aqua said. Kairi put the cookie down and Aerith and her boyfriend Isa Thomas.

"Aren't you supposed to be at Aqua's?" Aerith asked in a snotty voice.

"Hi, girls! You still need help with your scoop Nam? I've got my stick in the car." Isa said.

"What are you her babysitter?" Aerith asked.

"I think now is a good time to tell your sister." Aqua said.

"Tell me what?" Aerith asked. Namine looked at Aqua and turned to Aerith.

"Oh, nothing." Namine said. Aerith raised her eyebrow and walked away with Isa behind her. Namine turned back to Aqua.

"We need to talk outside." She said. Aqua followed behind her and Kairi stayed in the kitchen, starring at them through the window.

"What the hell was that about?" Namine asked.

"She's gonna find out."

"No, she's not."

"I promise you she is because if you don't tell her, I will." Aqua said.

"I thought you were my friend."

"I'm just trying to help you do the right thing."

"It was one kiss. If you tell her than I'll tell the truth about the Larxene thing." Namine threatened. Aqua knew she was defeated and turned to walk away, mad.

**End Flash Back**

Namine looks out her window and sees a silhouette in a window that looks an awful lot like someone she knows.

"Aqua?" She breathes heavily while looking out the window. The figure walks away and Namine sits back down at her computer. She wasn't sure what to believe or think.

Xion's house…

Xion and Olette sit on the swing on her front porch.

"I'm sorry for just stopping by."

"No, anytime. You know that."

"Someone left a note in my locker."

"From X?" Xion asked and looked at her friend.

"Did you get one too?"

"Do you think it could be Aqua messing with us?" Xion asked.

"Only Aqua could've known."

"Known what?"

"Oh, just something personal. I really believed she was dead."

"We all did."

"Could she really be back?"

"It must be her messing with us."

"Should we tell someone?"

"I don't know about you, but I can't." Xion said as she looked down at her lap.

"You know, I'm really glad you're back." Olette said, hoping to cheer her up. Xion smiled a bit. "Even though I grew up here, I still feel like a total outsider." She said, looking up to the sky.

Kairi's house…

Kairi and her mother, Ashley sat down eating dinner.

"I ran into Ella today. Why didn't you tell me Xion was back?" Ashley asked.

"We aren't really friends anymore." Kairi replied.

"She didn't know your father left. I hate telling that story."

"Just change the story. I did. I said that you two grew apart and it was mutual and we're much happier without him."

"Kairi…" Kairi looked at her mother. Ashley shook her head and smiled. "I guess it does sound much better than the truth."

"No one needs to know we got dumped." Kairi said.

"Kai, you didn't get dumped. I did."

"He left both of us."

Ashley phone begins to ring and she answers it. The same time the doorbell rings. Kairi gets up and walks toward the door. She opens the door and is stunned to see a police detective.

"Kairi Marin?" He asks.

"Yeah, why?" She asks, with a confused look upon her face.

"Is your mother home?" Ashley comes running to the door.

"What's this about?" Ashley asked.

"I'm detective Braig Wilden. We received a call from Sunset Mall, they have your daughter shoplifting on video surveillance."

"There must be a mistake."

"I don't think so. Turn around Kairi." He said and Kairi turned her back to the cop. He slapped the handcuffs on her and she felt embarrassed.

Police Station…

Kairi sits on a seat, waiting for her mother to come out from talking to Braig. Suddenly Kairi receives a text. She looks down at her phone and she puts her hand to her mouth, gasping. She drops her phone and it slides across the floor into someone's black and yellow shoe. They pick up the phone and hand it back to her.

"Is this yours?" A voice asks. Kairi still in shock, didn't even realize the phone slid from her hand. She looked up to see a boy with brown, spiky hair.

"Yes, thank you." She said, hands shaking.

"Hey are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said and put on a fake smile.

"Well, I know that's a fake smile, but it's a pretty one."

"Oh?" Kairi said, surprised. She wasn't expecting that.

"Sora!" A cop came around the corner and yelled. He looked angry.

"Hehe…guess I'll be seeing you." He said and waved to her. Kairi watched him walk away. She smiled, sheepishly. He seems really nice, Kairi thought. Suddenly Ashley walked out and Braig followed behind her.

"C'mon Kairi, we're leaving."

"Wait, what's going on?" Kairi asked.

Ashley ignored her and Kairi followed her outside to the car. They both get in the car and Kairi looks down, ashamed.

"Why would you steal a pair of sunglasses? I buy you everything you need to be popular."

"That's not why I did it."

"This is about your father, isn't it? Do you think this is going to get his attention?"

"I made a mistake. I'll fix it."

"Don't worry about it. I'm taking care of it."

Kairi felt awful but then remembered the text that came in. She took her phone out and opened the screen again.

_Be careful, Kairi. I hear prison food makes you fat. –X_

In the streets…

Olette was walking down the street by Yuffie's house. She hears sirens going off and turns her head. It was an ambulance headed right for Yuffie's house. She runs after it and sees it pull next to Yuffie's house. Olette frantically looks around to see what was going on.

"Olette!" Yuffie yells.

"Yuffie! What's going on?" She asked.

"They found your friend." She says with a frown.

"I knew she was back! Is she inside?" Olette says, smiling.

"No, I mean, they found her body."

Olette's smile quickly disappears as she watches the EMT's come out from the backyard with a stretcher and body bag on it. Olette looks around to see people gathering around. She looks across the street and sees Namine, watching. Xion drives around the corner and sees the ambulance. She pulls over to see what's going on. She gets out of the car and sees Namine. She runs over to Namine and they both watch in horror. Tears almost falling down their face.

"I heard they took Kairi to the police station earlier." Xion said.

"You don't think she'd ever talk about…?" Namine asked.

"The Larxene thing?" They both turn around to see Kairi. "We made a promise." Kairi said. The three girls stood there, watching the scene. Olette leaned her head on Yuffie, scared and upset.

Later that night/Kairi's house…

Kairi sat on her couch, watching the news about Aqua's disappearance and how they found her. The news reporter said they found her under the gazebo that was being reconstructed the summer she disappeared. Then she said there was a killer in Twilight Town. Kairi shuddered at the thought. Then the door slammed and Kairi jumped up. She looked around the corner to see her mom and Braig kissing. Kairi was disgusted. Braig grabs Ashley's hand and pulls her up the stairs. Ashley turns around and looks at Kairi. Kairi felt horrible. This was how her mother was 'taking care of it'?

Next day/Twilight Church

People gathered in lines, walking into the large church. A news reporter stood outside speaking to her camera man. Olette and her mother walk up and see Namine and her parents. Namine and Olette hug as their mothers talk. Inside the church Xion stands there looking outside the stained glass window. Riku sees her and walks up.

"Was she a friend of yours?" Riku asked Xion.

"Do you care?" Xion asked, coldly.

"I don't know what I feel worse about, having to stay away from you or being a jerk about it." Xion shook her head. "Yeah, she was one of my best friends."

"I'm sorry." Riku said.

"For what? About Aqua or for being a jerk?"

"Both."

"Thank you. I wouldn't want to do anything to you that would get you in trouble, so goodbye Riku." Xion starts to walk away but Riku grabs her hand and pulls her in for a kiss. Xion pulls away and walks down the stairs of the church. Riku stands alone, watching her. Xion sees Aqua's mom and walks up to her.

"Xion! I'm so glad you came! I asked for all four of you girls to sit together in the front. That's what Aqua would have wanted." Mrs. DiLaurentis says.

"Of course." Xion said and walked towards the front of the room. She sees the girls together and looks down at them. They look up and Xion sits down next to Kairi.

"Poor Aqua." Olette said.

"Can you believe what a scene this is?" Kairi asked.

"Aqua would have loved it." Xion said.

"Popular in life and death." Said Namine.

Xion's phone rings and all four of the girls jumped.

"Is that anyone we know?" Kairi asked.

"Just my mom. Olette and I aren't the only ones who got messages from X?"

Namine turns to try and forget the subject and sees Larxene.

"Oh my god. What is Larxene doing here?" The girls turned around to see a blind Larxene, sitting next to her step brother, Roxas. Aqua's mom comes up and sits down next to the girls.

"Did you see Larxene Marshall is here? I didn't know they were friends."

"They weren't." Namine said.

The ceremony begins and everyone stays quiet while listening to the preist. When the ceremony finished, the girls stepped outside behind a crowd of people.

"Xion, Kairi, Olette, Namine!" Someone yelled. They turned around to see it was Detective Braig.

"Do we know you?" Namine asked.

"Kairi can fill you in." He said, smirking at Kairi. Kairi's eyebrows furrowed down and her eyes squinted at him. "I understand you were all friends with the victim." He said.

"Yeah, we were." Xion replied.

"I need to talk to each one of you at some point."

"Why? We told the cops everything we knew after the night she disappeared." Namine said.

"I intend to go over all of your statements. This is no longer a missing person's case, it is now a murder. I will find out what happened that summer." Braig said and walked away.

"Do you think he knows about…?" Xion asked.

"No, how could he?" Namine asked.

All at once their phones started ringing. They all pulled them out and read the same text.

_I'm still here, bitches. And I know everything… -X_


	3. The Larxene Thing

I know I cast Pence as Ben but I remembered the scene with Ben and Toby fighting and I don't Roxas to fight Pence but I do wanna keep that scene so I'm switching it to Rai as Ben.

**Episode Two: The Larxene Thing**

Namine, Kairi, Xion and Olette sat in a diner together after the funeral. Kairi pour alcohol from her flash into her drink and spotted a man across the room starring at her.

"What are you looking at?" Kairi asked. The man turned away and began talking to the woman across from him again.

"I don't understand why Larxene was there." Namine said.

"That cop was acting like we were suspects." Olette said.

"Do we look guilty? We didn't do anything wrong." Kairi said.

"Except lie about what really happened to Larxene." Xion said.

"We promised we'd never say anything about that." Olette said and turned to look at Xion.

"It was an accident." Namine said.

"How does this X person know things about me that only Aqua would know? She knew all of our secrets but we never knew any of hers." Xion wondered.

"I knew some. She was seeing someone that summer. He was an older boy and he had a girlfriend. She didn't tell me his name." Namine said.

"I knew she was keeping something from me-from us." Olette said.

"That's it, Nam?" Kairi asked.

"Obviously more than you ever got from her."

"When Aqua didn't come back that night, I had a bad feeling something happened." Xion said.

The girls all put their hands down. "Yea and something bad did happen." Olette mumbled.

Next morning…

Kairi woke up and came down stairs into her kitchen. She sat down at the counter and her mother stood there, talking on the phone. The news was on the tv and Kairi started watching it. The news reporter was talking about a press conference with Detective Braig about Aqua's case.

"The coroner did release his findings this morning. Aqua's body did show signs of blunt force head trauma but the cause of her death was suffocation." Braig said on the tv. Kairi put her head down and buried it into her phone. Ashley noticed and turned the tv off as she hung up her phone.

"You sure you'll be okay going to school today?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kairi said. "I'm really sorry mom."

"For what? The cop? It's over, we won't be seeing him again." Ashley said.

"Okay."

Olette's house…

Olette sat on her front porch and she saw Yuffie walking up. "Hey, are you okay?" She asked and sat down next to Olette. Olette just looked at her for a minute. "Of course you're not okay. That was a dumb question. I thought about going to the funeral but I didn't know her so it didn't feel right."

"It's okay, I understand. You look tired." Olette said.

"I haven't gotten much sleep."

"I haven't gotten much sleep. My mom found another one of Aqua's boxes in the basement. Found some pictures in my room too."

"I wish someone would take the posters down. It's hurt to look at them." Olette said with her arms crossed. Olette's mom came running up onto the porch and turned to look at Olette and Yuffie.

"Oh, hi! You must be Yuffie!" Pam said and held her hand out to Yuffie. Yuffie and got up and shook her hand and Olette got up and stood next to her. "Yes I am." Yuffie said.

"Well I'd say welcome to the neighborhood but…"

"It's kind of hard when your backyard is a crime scene."

"Still? Why don't you spend a few days with us?"

"Thank you!" Yuffie said and smiled at Olette. Olette smiled back at her.

School…

Xion walked down the halls of the school and had a paper in her hand. She stood in front a classroom door and looked at the paper. She sighed and opened the classroom door. She walked in and saw Riku sitting down at his desk. He looked up to see her.

"Xion!" He said surprised.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Yeah, of course." He said. She handed him the paper. "I'd like to transfer out of your class." She said.

"I understand where you're coming from. I wish you would stay in class."

"This isn't an easy decision. I can't sit in here and call you Mr. Fitz every day."

"I can keep my feelings in check."

"I can't and even if I could, I don't want to. So please just sign this." Xion said and Riku reluctantly signed the paper. Xion took the paper from him and walked away. Riku watched her and sighed. Xion walked out of the class room to see Olette at her locker. Rai walked up to her and surprised her with a kiss.

"Whoa!" Olette said.

"What?" Rai asked.

"Nothing, you just surprised me."

"Are we still on for a movie tonight?"

"My mom invited Yuffie to stay with us for a couple nights so I won't be able to."

"Oh, what kind of jamies does the new girl wear?"

"How would I know? I'll see you at practice." Olette said and walked towards Xion. As they were walking the school speaker sounded off.

"Will the following students please come to the office; Olette Fields, Xion Montgomery, Namine Hastings and Kairi Marin."

Kairi and Namine walked from around the corner and walked towards Olette and Xion. Xion's phone beeped and Xion read the text aloud.

_Dead girls walking –X_

The girls looked at each other and started walking towards the office. When they got in, there stood Detective Braig. "Girls?" He said and escorted them into a room. The girls walked in and sat on the couch. Braig shut the door behind him and sat on the desk. "So I called you here to reviews your statements. Now let's see…" He said going through papers. "You heard Aqua scream, Namine?"

"I said that, yeah."

"And when you woke up in the barn, Aqua was gone and so was Namine?" He said pointing at Kairi, Xion, and Olette.

"Yeah, I woke up before them and saw that Aqua was missing." Xion said.

"So you went looking for her?" He said once again, pointing to Namine.

"That's what happened." Namine said raising her eyebrow. "Is this an interrogation?"

"No, just a routine follow up. Why did you guys fall asleep?"

"We were tired." Xion said.

"Tired, really? Is that how you remember it, Kairi?"

"Yeah. Look we told you everything we know, just like the night she went missing."

"I know and you see the thing is, it's exactly what you said that night too. Almost like it's been rehearsed." He raised his eyebrows at them. The girls just stared at him and they jumped up when the bell rang. "Well, that's the bell for lunch, so we should be going."Olette said and stood up. The other three got up and followed behind her, walking towards the lunch room. They sat down at the table and Kairi looked over to see Larxene walking with her tray.

"Larxene is back in school now?" She asked. Xion turned around and looked at Larxene. She got up and walked up to her.

"Hey Larxene, it's me, Xion. Do you want to come sit with us?"

"Sure." Larxene said.

"Okay, I'll sit you next to Kairi and Olette and Namine will be right across from you." Xion said and took Larxene's tray over to the table. She placed on the table and helped Larxene to her seat.

"So this would be Aqua's chair?" Larxene asked.

"No, we're not sitting at that table anymore." Namine said.

"You know, she came to visit me in the hospital after the accident."

"Aqua did?"

"Yeah. Everyone misunderstood Aqua but I knew exactly who she was."

"When did you get back Larxene? We heard you were in Philadelphia at the school for the visually impaired."

"You can say blind, it's not a dirty word." Larxene said with a smile on her face. Even though she couldn't see, she could feel that they felt guilty. The girls sat quietly, just looking at each other. "Wow, it's quiet. You guys used to be the fun table. What happened?"

**Flash Back**

Xion, Kairi, Namine, Olette and Aqua were in Olette's room trying on each other's clothes. They were giggling and swapping clothes back and forth. Aqua grabbed a shirt and put it on. "Oh, Aqua that looks so good on you!" Olette said. Aqua looked at herself in the mirror with a big smile on her face and then began shouting.

"I can see you, you little perv!" She yelled and ran towards the window.

"Who was it? What did you see?" Namine asked.

"That perv, Roxas Cavannaugh!"

"Should we tell someone?" Xion asked.

"We could, but I have a better idea. Follow me." Aqua said and grabbed her purse. The girls followed her outside of the house and began sneaking around Roxas' house. Aqua pulled a stink bomb and a lighter out of her purse. Namine looked at her.

"Whoa, are you want to do that?" She asked.

"I don't want to do this." Olette said.

"Fine, you're on your own. Go back." Aqua said.

"We should just call the cops." Xion said.

"Where's the fun in that? Roxas is a freak and he needs to be punished. It's only a stink bomb! We're blowing up his house." Aqua lit the stink bomb with the lighter and opened the door to his garage and tossed it in. "Let's go now!" Aqua began running and the four girls followed behind her. The bomb inside explodes and the garage catches fire. The girls hid some bushes close by and watched it become consumed in flames.

**Flash Back Ends**

All the girls phones beep and they just stared at them. "Aren't you gonna get that?" Larxene asked and handed Namine her phone. Namine reluctantly took it and opened the text up. She looked at the other three with wide eyes and they checked their phones too.

_If only she could see how guilty you all look –X_

Later in Riku's class, everyone sat down and took their seats. Selphie walked into the room and stopped to look at Riku.

"Am I late?" She asked.

"Selphie right?" He asked.

"That's right Mr. Fritz." Everyone in the class started laughing. "What? What did I say?"

"Just take your seat, Selphie." Riku said. Selphie walked towards her seat next to Kairi and sat down. Kairi leaned over to her. "It's Mr. Fitz, not Fritz."

"Oops." Selphie said, giggling. Soon after Xion walked in and placed a paper down on Riku's desk and immediately sat down in her seat. Riku looked at the paper and then looked back at Xion. The paper said that her request to transfer out his class had been declined. Xion opened up her book and looked back up at Riku.

That evening…

Namine sat down in a restaurant across from her dad. She twiddled her thumbs, not quite sure what to say to her father. Her parents were both very uptight and took everything seriously. They wanted nothing but for their girls to succeed in everything and they were all about winning, especially her father. She looked up at her father and smiled.

"I've decided to take a class at Sunset, but not for credit, just for fun."

"What's the point in that?" Her father chuckled. Namine slouched back in her seat, disappointed. She looked up and spotted Xion walking into the resataurant. "I'll be right back, dad." She got up and walked towards Xion.

"Hey, I was gonna email you when I got home. How weird was that lunch?" Namine asked. Xion turned towards her.

"I think on a scale of one to ten, more like an eleven."

"Is that the new fiancé? Is he as uptight as Aerith?" Xion asked.

"No one is as uptight as Aerith. I'd better get back now."

"Alright I'll see you later." Xion said and turned to grab her bag of food off the counter. Namine walked towards the table and sat down next to Cloud. The waitress asked what drinks they wanted.

"I'll have a vodka soda." Namine said. Aerith and their dad looked at her, confused.

"She's just kidding." Aerith said. Cloud smiled at Namine.

"I actually will have a vodka soda." He said. Namine smiled back at him and thanked him.

**Olette's house…**

Olette and Yuffie sat on the bed, getting ready to go to sleep. Yuffie turned to look at Olette.

"What side of the bed do you sleep on?" She asked.

"Kind of in the middle." Olette said.

"I sleep kind of in the middle too." Yuffie said and smiled. Yuffie crawled under the blankets and laid down. Olette laid down next to her faced the window. Yuffie turned around to face her and put her arm around her. Olette's eyes opened, in shock. She then smiled and held her hand. Then Olette's phone went off and she looked at it. Olette shuddered and looked around the room and out the window, shaking. She set her phone down and tried closing her eyes, but she felt that it was hard to seeing as how she felt violated. She could see the text as she closed her eyes and kept reading it in her mind.

_Did you get a good night kiss? Here's one from me XO –X_

**The next morning, on the way to school…**

Rai was driving Olette and Yuffie to school and he turned around to look at Yuffie with a smile on his face.

"So Yuffie, you've slept with Olette now and gotten further than I have, what's the secret?" Rai said, smirking.

"Girls don't kiss and tell." Yuffie said.

"Shut up, Rai." Olette said. Rai ignored her and continued talking.

"So did you guys get much sleep last night? I know I wouldn't have."

"I slept like a baby, I don't know about Olette." Rai stopped the car and Yuffie opened the back door. "You coming Olette?"

"Yeah, I'll be right there." Olette said. Yuffie got out and shut the door. Olette turned to Rai and he shrugged.

"Oh, I was just kidding around with her." Rai said and then Olette started kissing him. Rai's friends came over surrounded the car and started hitting it. "Get a room Rai!" They laughed. Olette stopped and angrily got out of the car. She saw Kairi and stomped off towards her.

**Later that night at Olette's home…**

Olette sat down next to her window and starred outside. She was lost in thought until she heard a knock at her door. She turned around and saw her mom.

"Hey are you okay?" She asked. Olette just sighed and her mom came and sat down next to her. "It'll get better, I promise. Everything will go back to normal."

"I don't even know what normal is anymore." Olette said.

"You've been missing her for a whole year, that's a lot to take in."

"It's not just that. I think there's something wrong with me."

"Honey, there's nothing wrong with you. You lost a dear friend. You need to find a way to say goodbye. What about the other girls? Have you told them how you feel?"

"Finding out Aqua is really gone has brought us back together but it's not what it used to be. We were friends because of Aqua."

"Then use her to get close again. You need to say goodbye together."

"Thanks mom." Olette said and smiled. She hugged her mom and her mom kissed her forehead.

**Namine's house…**

Namine stood in her room, reviewing an assignment. Cloud walked in and saw her rubbing her neck as she spoke to herself.

"You need another rub?" Cloud asked. Namine jumped and smiled.

"No, it's okay. I have to prepare for the history test on Monday and I have a paper due in Latin."

"Can I help with anything?"

"Do you know Latin?"

"Not really. I didn't grow up in a family like yours. I don't know that kind ofpressure but I believe it's unbearable at times."

"Well, you're not exactly a slouch, Mr. Oxford. That drive had to come from somewhere."

"My life was my choice. That drive came from me." Cloud approached her and got closer to her face. Namine couldn't help but close her eyes and move her face closer. Then their lips met. Cloud wrapped his arms around her. What they didn't know, was that Aerith had been peaking inside the room, watching them. Aerith stuck up her nose and walked away with her arms crossed. Namine realized what she was doing and pushed him away.

"Stop, stop. We can't do this."

Cloud put his head down and walked out of the room, quickly. Namine stood there, a hand over her heart. "It's not right…" She said.

**The next day…**

Selphie and Kairi walked across the mall parking lot. Selphie turned her head towards Kairi.

"You know, this gonna sound totally gay but if I saw you struttin' that dress and those heels, I would think about doing you." Selphie and Kairi giggled. "And I love the necklace, did you actually pay for that?" Selphie joked. Kairi just smiled and nodded. She looked out of the corner of her eye and saw Detective Braig. "I'll be right back." Kairi said. Selphie waited for her and Kairi walked towards Braig.

"Are you spying on me?" Kairi asked.

"Just doing my job." He said.

"Look, I'll pay for the sunglasses. I'll pick up trash on the highway but please leave my mother alone."

"You see, the thing is Kairi, I don't care that you were drinking the night Aqua went missing. What I care about is you and your pretty little friends knowing who killed her."

"What?!"

"Your mom may be hot, Kairi, but not hot enough to make that go away." He said. Kairi felt shaken. She didn't know what to say. She just glared at him and walked away. Braig smirked at her. He believed she was the weakest one and would be able to crack her first.

**Olette's house…**

Olette sat at her desk and began looking through her drawer. She was looking for her flash drive but instead found a bracelet. It was a purple bracelet with her name on it that Aqua had given her. She smiled and put it on. She started to remember the time Aqua had given all the bracelets to each of them.

**Flash Back**

The girls sat at a table in the diner they always went into. Aqua sat in between Namine and Xion while Olette and Kairi were across from them. "I have a surprise for you." Aqua said. She pulled out of the bag, five purple bracelets. Each bracelet had their names on them. She passed them out to each girl and held onto hers. The girls smiled and started thanking her. Aqua held up hers to Olette.

"Olette will you put mine on for me?" She asked, smiling. Olette smiled and grabbed the bracelet from her and snapped it around her wrist. "We'll be friends forever."

**End Flash Back/That evening…**

It was pouring rain and Xion walked down the street, hiding her cup of coffee into her jacket. She saw a silver car drive slowly by her. She peered into the window and saw Riku in the driver seat. He looked at her and kept driving. Xion watched him and stood there, baffled. She kept watching the car and then the brake lights turned on. Riku stopped the car and opened the passenger seat door. Xion ran over to the car and hopped in without question. Riku started driving down the street, avoiding Xion's eyes. Xion looked right at him and watched him intently. Riku then stopped the car again and looked at Xion. He couldn't hold back anymore and he pulled her in for a kiss. Xion kissed him back and put her hands on his face. Riku just kept thinking about, how right it felt to be with Xion. It felt like nothing else in the world mattered. They pulled away and smiled at each other. Riku began driving towards Xion's home. The whole way they didn't say a word to each other. They didn't need to. They knew what the other was feeling. Riku pulled up to Xion's house and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Xion smiled and stepped out of the car and ran inside. When she got inside, she had a big smile on her face and then jumped to the sound of her phone beeping. She looked at the text and her smile faded.

_When students kiss teachers, someone gets HURT. That's a promise I'll keep. -X_

"You can't keep doing this." Xion jumped at the sound of someone talking, but thankfully it was only her father. He stood up and walked in front of her. "You're not very good at hiding your feelings." He said and then continued on. "Your mother knows something is going on. Xion, I don't like to lie but sometimes the truth does more harm than good."

"Are you seeing her again?"

"She teaches at Sunset, so I do see her but not like that."

"Were you in love with her?"

"I had strong feelings for Meredith and my attraction to her took me completely by surprise. I had no intention on being unfaithful to your mother. And you're too young to understand this, but I gave into my emotions." He said and Xion looked away, knowing deep down, she did know what he meant. The door shut and interrupted their conversation. It was her mother and brother, Tidus.

"Xion, we thought you'd be out tonight?" Ella asked.

"No, I'm staying home tonight."

"I like the sound of that." Byron said.

"I'm just gonna get out of these wet clothes and I'll be down for dinner." Xion said and ran up the stairs.

**The next morning…**

Namine went out for a run to get some exercise and fresh air. She needed to breathe from what just happened. Aerith had found out that Cloud kissed her and the house was like World War II. It always felt intense in that house though. When Namine turned the corner, she spotted Larxene. She took her ear buds out to listen. Larxene had been sitting on a bench alone and it looked like she was talking on the phone. Instead she was texting but since she couldn't see, she was using voice command.

"Send text now." She said.

It then clicked in Namine's head, that maybe Larxene had been the one sending them the texts from X.


	4. To Kill a Mocking Girl

**Chapter 3: To Kill A Mocking Girl**

It was early in the morning and Namine, Olette, Kairi and Xion had met up outside of a wooded area to find a place where people could come and remember Aqua. They were going to place it somewhere in the woods because it was one of Aqua's favorite places to be. They started walking down a trail and Kairi began swatting at bugs around her head.

"Whose idea was this again?" She asked.

"Olette's mom." Namine said.

"It wasn't necessarily her idea, she just said we should do something for her and then I thought of this." Olette said.

"Well couldn't we do something that didn't involve mosquitoes?" Kairi asked.

"They're not mosquitoes, they're gnats." Namine said.

"Whatever, they're small, annoying and flying up my nose!"

"They're probably attracted to your perfume and hair spray and lip gloss." Namine said, giggling.

"So what are you saying? That I attract flies?"

"Gnats."

"Ugh," Kairi grumbled in defeat and threw her hands in the air. "Why do I feel like this is the wrong way?"

"No, this is it. I remember that tree." Olette said.

"Have you been out since Aqua disappeared?" Xion asked.

"Me? No."

"But you remember that tree." Namine said, pointing to the tree.

"It's not that weird, we used to come out here every day since eighth grade."

"Well, I think this is totally the wrong place for the shrine." Xion said.

"It's not a shrine; it's just a place to remember Aqua. What's wrong with that?"

"I think doing it out here makes it look like we have something to hide."

"You're worried about what other people think?"

"Well aren't you? Do we really want to give that creepy detective more reasons to question us?"

"Why are you so quiet, Kairi?" Namine asked.

"I'm trying to keep the bugs in my nose out of my mouth."

"You're allowed to have an opinion on this."

"You want my opinion? I say we hold off and not remember her until we know for sure she's not still here."

"What? You think she's still here!?" Olette asked.

"Kairi, they found her body!" Namine said.

"Stop." Kairi whispered and held her hand up in front of the girls. She thought she heard something but couldn't listen for it because the Olette and Namine ignored her and continued talking.

"Can we just not-," Namine started.

"You asked for my opinion. I don't believe she's really gone."

"We went to her funeral."

"Yeah, and then we got a text from her."

"It wasn't her, someone is messing with us." Olette said. Xion just stood quietly, listening to the girls argue. Xion thought heard someone walking around and stepping on branches. Xion tried to drown them out and keep listening.

"How do you know? And what about all those nasty messages? How does this 'x' person know stuff that only Aqua knew?" Kairi continued.

"You guys, shh…" Xion said. They quieted down and listened. They heard the trees whistle and branches crack. "Is anyone there? Hello?" Xion called.

"It's probably just a rabbit." Namine said.

"Hello?"

"It's not gonna answer you."

"Can we just go?"

"That is definitely not a rabbit! Someone is out there!" Right after Xion said that, their phones beep. Xion pulled hers out of her pocket and opened the text.

_Heads up BFFs, it's open season on liars and I'm hunting –X_

Xion looked at the girls with wide eyes and all three of them pulled their phones to read the same text. Kairi's hand shook and she looked all around. It felt as if her head was spinning.

"Let's go now! We'll find a different place to do this!" She said and all four girls turned around and quickly ran to the beginning of the trail. Once they got there, they looked at the town clock for the time.

"Oh no, we're going to be late for school!" Olette said.

"Okay, we'll meet up at lunch and talk about this then." Namine said. They all went separate ways and headed to school. Kairi got in her car and began searching around for her purse. "Crap." She muttered. She realized she had forgotten her purse at home and she turned her car on to head home to get it. Kairi pulled up to her house and got out of the car. She approached the front door and opened it. Inside, she saw Braig, coming down the stairs, shirtless. He ignored her and walked into the kitchen. She followed behind him and when she turned the corner, she saw her mom cooking. Ashley turned around and Kairi caught her by surprise.

"Braig, why don't you go upstairs and get dressed? I'll take care of breakfast." Ashley said.

"Sure thing. Remember, over easy babe." He said. Kairi looked at him disgusted. She almost vomited in her mouth. Once Kairi made sure he was out of hearing distance completely, she turned to her mother.

"So what does he live here now?" Kairi asked.

"Take out the milk, please." Ashley said, ignoring her.

"Is this a permanent thing?!" Kairi said, almost yelling.

"Keep your voice down."

"It was one pair of sunglasses and they were last season's. Mom, you don't have to do this."

"Do what?"

"Squeeze his grape fruit."

"We will talk after breakfast."

"I don't eat breakfast, and neither do you. Kick him to the curb."

"Look, until he gets the store to drop the charges for your shopping spree, we aren't kicking anyone to the curb. The last thing we want is an enemy on the police force."

Kairi shook her head as her mom turned to the stove. She spotted her purse on the table and she grabbed it and quickly headed out the door.

Later that afternoon, Xion left school for lunch to eat with her parents. They sat outside of a small café and had just finished eating.

"So you're pretty far into that book," Byron said.

"Yeah, I have like 60 some page left and I don't want it to end." Xion said.

"You should read her biography next."

"I'm going to grab another poppy seed, Xion would you like to share it with me?" Ella asked.

"Yeah, sure." She said

"Do you like your English teacher?" Byron asked as Xion was sipping her drink. Her eyes got wide and she started coughing.

"Oh, uh…yeah. He's okay."

"What's his name again? Mr. Riku Fitz?"

"Heh, yeah. Maybe I'll check out that biography at school." Xion said, trying to quickly change the subject.

"Oh, no need. I have a copy of it in my office. I'll bring it home."

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

"Byron?" Xion jumped to the sound of woman's voice.

"Oh, hey!" Byron yelled to her. Xion turned around and the woman walked over from across the street. Once she got closer, she recognized who she was and Xion's eyebrows furrowed together as she looked at the woman.

"Xion, this is Meredith. This is my daughter, Xion." Byron said introducing the two. Meredith looked down at Xion.

"Oh, your daughter, of course she is." Meredith averted her gaze back to Byron. "Did you get my message?"

"Yes, I did and I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to call you yet."

"It's okay; they just need the referral by Monday."

"I'll get it as soon as I get back to campus."

Meredith looked back at Xion. "So how does it feel to be home? Must be really dull after spending it overseas for two years."

"Not really." Xion said.

"Well, I'll see you on campus, Byron. It was nice to meet you, Xion." Meredith said. Xion just gave her a fake smile and turned her back. Byron waved and Meredith walked away.

"I thought she graduated?" Xion asked her dad.

"She did, she's a teaching assistant now. I can't pretend like she doesn't exist, Xion. Her office is across the hall from mine. It's small college."

"Not small enough." Xion mumbled, rolling her eyes.

After school, Namine had just gotten home and walked inside her house. She walked into the kitchen to see her Aerith at the table and her mother, Veronica. They were talking to each other and drinking coffee.

"You can't avoid seeing people, sweetie." Veronica said.

"And they'll say that it's sad, humiliating, or pathetic? All of the above? Just take someone else. I don't want to have to explain a wedding that's never going to happen to every last club member." Aerith said. Namine walked into the kitchen with her head down. Her mother turned to her. "Hey," She said. Namine nodded and walked by the counter. Aerith stood up with a handful of bridal magazines. She walked passed Namine and nudged her arm. "Excuse me." She said, rudely. Namine ignored her and looked at her mom.

"Where's dad?" Namine asked.

"He left for the office." Veronica said.

"For what?"

"He's behind today on his work. He was helping your sister with some things Cloud left behind."

"Unfortunately you weren't one of them." Aerith sniped.

"How many times am I going to have to say it? I'm sorry!" Namine yelled.

"Girls! Please!" Veronica yelled. They both bit their tongues and didn't look at each other.

"Who's calling the paper to pull the engagement announcement?" Aerith asked her mother.

"I'll take care of it."

"What about the engagement dinner? Do I have to make that call?!" Aerith said, throwing her hands in the air.

"Get me the number and I'll do it."

Namine grabbed a muffin from the counter and avoided eye contact with Aerith. She began to head upstairs and her mom grabbed her shoulder.

"Where do you think you are going?" She asked.

"In my bedroom."

"No, you're not. I just cleaned your bed spread. Eat in the kitchen."

"I don't think I'm welcome."

"That's never stopped you before." Aerith said.

"I did not invite your fiancé to kiss me, Aerith! He made the move!" Namine yelled.

"Namine, please!" Veronica yelled.

"And you just sat there like a throw pillow with your tongue down his throat!"

"Look, I know you're upset and I feel for you but please do not dump it all on me! Maybe you should be asking yourself why Cloud felt the need to-," Namine quickly stopped herself. Aerith looked at her with tearful eyes and her mother looked at her in shock. She looked down. "I'm sorry. I'm just going to leave for a little while." Namine ran outside of the house and just stood on the front step. She put her head in her hands and sat down. "How am I gonna fix this?" She asked herself.

The next day at school, Kairi stood at her locker with it open. She looked at herself in the mirror and finished putting the lip gloss on. She heard the voice of her boyfriend, Seifer behind her laughing. She turned around and smiled to see him and his friend, Lea. She walked across the hall to greet them.

"Seifer, what's so funny?" She asked.

"Lea is out of control!" Seifer said smiling and wrapped his arm around Kairi. "Hey, you smell good." Seifer said winking at her and Kairi just smiled.

"Save it for tomorrow night." Lea said.

"What's tomorrow night?" Kairi asked.

"Lea's parents are going out of town, which means the party of the year is officially on." Seifer said.

"Think wild, think parental units in a different time zone." Lea said.

Selphie walked up and stood next to them. "Oh, a party! Count me in!" She exclaimed.

"I gotta get to practice, save that smell." Seifer said, kissing Kairi. Seifer and Lea walked away and Selphie and Kairi walked in the other direction.

"So the pressure's on." Selphie said.

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked.

"Not all of us have Seifer to bring to that party and I'm not gonna spend the night guarding the bushes so you two can jump each other's bones."

"We're not gonna be hiding in the bushes."

"Have you guys even done it yet?"

"It's not a race, Selphie."

"Okay, mom. I'm not pushing you but you guys have been dating for months and if you're not together in that way, then are you even together at all?" Selphie teased. Kairi shook her head and ignored her. Out of the glimpse of her eye, she recognized a certain spiky haired brunette. "Sora?" She whispered to herself. He turned around from his group of friends and saw Kairi. He waved to her and she blushed. She waved back with a big smile on her face. She felt her face get warm. She couldn't but wonder why she felt so attracted to him. Selphie turned around to see Kairi slowly walking and starring at Sora. "Are you coming?" She raised her eyebrows and asked. "Uh, yeah!" Kairi snapped out of it and ran up to her.

Olette stood outside the school, locking her bike up and Yuffie came running up to her.

"I totally saw you on your bike! You took that corner on one wheel!" Yuffie exclaimed.

"I didn't even see you." Olette said, smiling.

"Well, I tried to catch up to you, but your bike is faster than my car."

Suddenly a hand grabbed Olette's shoulder. She jumped and turned around to see Rai.

"Got ya!" He yelled.

"Rai! Stop!" Olette yelled and pushed his arm off of her.

"Fine, I can wait one more day. You guys heard about Lea's party tomorrow night?" He asked.

"Is this one of Twilight Town's pagan rituals?" Yuffie asked.

"Kinda, there was definitely howling last year." Rai said, walking away to catch up with his friends.

"Come with us?" Olette asked Yuffie.

"I'll think about it." Yuffie said, smiling.

"Namine is here, I'm going to catch up with her quick." Olette said.

"Okay. See you later." She said and waved.

Olette ran up to Namine. "Good morning." Olette said to her. Olette looked at her book in her hands. "Russian history? How many AP classes are you going to take until your brain explodes?" She asked.

"I'm drowning in this class."

"What's drowning to you, B+?"

"I have a paper due on Monday and I've only written two words, my name."

"Yikes." Olette said.

"I just have so much on my mind. Not just with Aqua but with everything. Is there any chance your family wants to adopt me?"

Both the girls looked up to see Roxas Cavanaugh. "He's back too?" Namine asked Olette. Olette shrugged her shoulders. They looked to the side of the hallway to see Detective Braig approach Kairi.

"Kairi," He said. Kairi looked up at him and crossed her arms. "Your principal said we could have a chat." He continued.

"No, I have to get to class." Kairi said and continued walking. Braig put a hand in front of her.

"Don't worry, you've been excused." Kairi put her head down in defeat and followed Braig to the office.

"What is going on? Why just her?" Namine whispered to Olette.

"Probably think she's the easiest to crack." Olette whispered back.

"Whisper, whisper, whisper. Almost feels like Aqua is still here." Larxene said, walking by them. The two girls looked at her with raised eyebrows.

In the office, Kairi sat on a chair and Braig stood across from her.

"So I keep coming back to this picture of you and Aqua on the steps," He said showing her the picture. "You've made a lot of changes between then and now."

"Is that a crime?" Kairi asked.

"No, just an observation."

"She helped me make those changes."

"Did she ever regret it? Start to see you as her competition?"

"No one competed with Aqua; you'd be stupid to even try." Kairi said. Braig held up a picture of a man.

"What about this guy, did she ever mention him?"

"I don't know, what's the point of this?"

"The point is I'm trying to flesh out all the details of that summer."

"So you can ask me how much weight I lost. Make it look like 'clumpy Kairi' wanted Aqua dead so I could replace her?"

"I'm not questioning you as a suspect, Kairi. We're just having a chat. Besides one can't underestimate how much the past informs the present."

"Oh, so you're still that same party boy from the class of '96? Did you call me in here to do keg stands?"

"Wow, someone has been doing their homework."

"I like to know who's joining us for breakfast." Kairi snapped.

The bell rung and Xion and Namine were waiting outside the office for Kairi.

"She's not answering my texts. Maybe I should send her a message through facebook." Xion said.

"If she's not answering texts, what makes you think she's gonna check her facebook." Namine said. Then Kairi emerged from the office. She looked over to see Xion and Namine in shock. "What did he say to you?" Xion asked.

"Nothing, just asked the same old, stupid questions."

"You were in there for an hour, Kairi." Xion said.

"He took a couple calls and I had to wait there until he finally shut up."

"Is he going to question all of us alone now?"

"I don't know. I have to get ready for class and use the bathroom before I go so I'll see you later." Kairi said and walked off.

"Is she being weird?" Xion asked Namine.

"Yeah, she is." Namine shrugged and they continued walking down the hallway.

After school, Namine got in contact with Cloud and decided to stop by his place to try and fix things. Cloud sat on the front steps, waiting to meet her. "Hi," Namine said as she approached him.

"Hi," Cloud said. Namine sat down next to him. "So you live here now?" She asked.

"It's not the Hastings manor but I have a whole sofa to myself." He said.

"Cloud, I need your help. I need you to tell my family what really happened."

"I tried. They won't return my calls."

"I never wanted to break you guys up. Could you at least try my dad again?"

"I don't think it would make a difference what I say. Just give it time. I know I made a mess of everything and I didn't mean to put you in the middle of it but maybe what my real mistake was falling for the wrong sister."

Namine just looked at him. She didn't know what to say. She didn't feel that way about him. She checked her phone for the time. "Oh, it's 4 o'clock. I have to go. I have this paper that's due on Monday and none of it's accomplished."

"I know you have to get back to that wretched place called home."

"Yeah," Namine said and she walked off down the street.

In the locker rooms, Olette was at her locker alone and was about to switch from her swimsuit to her casual clothes. Olette heard the door to the locker room open and then something thud against a locker. She jumped up and set her clothes down. She started looking around for any sign of movement. "Hello? Anyone in here?" She called. A hand grabbed her arm and pushed her back onto the locker. She gasped and then saw that it was Rai.

"Oh my god, Rai! What are you doing in here? How did you get in?" She asked, startled.

"I walked."

"Yeah, well if someone catches you-,"

"I'll take my chances. Besides we need some alone time."

"I need to get dressed." Olette said trying to remove his grasp from her arms.

"Don't bother."

"I can't do this now, my mom is expecting me."

"What's up with you? Last week in my car you were all over me and this week you won't even look at me."

"It's nothing. I just have a lot on my mind."

"Well, maybe you need to relax." He said and began kissing her neck.

"Rai, I can't do this now. Seriously, stop it." Rai continued to ignore her. "Rai! Stop it and get off of me!" She yelled. All of sudden Olette heard a smack and Rai was off of her in an instant. In the blink of an eye, she saw someone punching Rai and throwing him against the locker. She was surprised to see that it was Roxas. Olette panicked.

"You guys, stop!"

"Is he your friend? Is he why you are acting like this?" Rai said looking passed Roxas. Roxas didn't say a word and just kept holding him against the locker.

"Rai, get over yourself. We're done." Olette said and grabbed her clothes and quickly headed out of the locker room. Roxas let go of Rai and ran out. Rai stood there dumb founded of what had just happened.

The next day at home, Kairi was getting ready for Lea's party. She grabbed her bag from in her room and walked downstairs. Her mom was standing by the counter preparing a salad for dinner. Braig sat, drinking a beer at the kitchen table.

"How are you getting home? If there's any drinking tonight, I will pick you up." Ashley said to her daughter.

"I could always take you, if you don't mind riding in the squad car." Braig said. Kairi gave him a dirty look and said, "No, thanks. I'll be fine." Kairi left her bag on the counter and walked out the front door. Ashley gave Braig a dirty look and raised her eyebrows at him.

"It was only a joke." Braig said.

"Did you hear back from the store yet? Are they prosecuting or not?"

"No, I haven't heard anything yet."

Ashley turned around to the stove to stir the noodles. Braig saw Kairi's bag on the table and slowly got up to look inside. He opened the bag and saw a purple bracelet with her name on it. Ashley turned around. "What are you doing?" Ashley asked him. He held up the bracelet. "Where have I seen this before?" He asked. "Aqua gave it to her."

"Oh, that's right. We were talking about Aqua at school today."

"Why were you at her school?"

"I was interviewing Kairi."

"Why was my kid being question again?"

"She was close to the victim. Kids keep secrets."

"Not mine. And if you think she knows more than she is telling you, you're out of line."

"Whoa, easy mama bear. It was just a routine investigation."

"Well, you need a search warrant to go through her purse." Ashley said and turned around.

"So can I help with dinner?" Braig asked, setting the bracelet down. Ashley turned around and crossed her arms.

"Yeah, have it someplace else. Breakfast too."

That night at Lea's party, Olette and Yuffie were walking towards his house.

"I should've just stayed home tonight." Olette said, folding her arms.

"Why, because you broke up with someone? What are you going to do, hide under your bed the rest of the school year?" Yuffie said as she opened the door. As soon as they walked in Olette put her hand to her face. Rai was standing right there, talking to his friends. He looked directly at Olette. His mouth was swollen and purple from when Roxas punched him.

"There he is." She whispered to Yuffie.

"Whoa, did you do that to him?" She asked. Rai started to approach the girls.

"So you decided to come after all?" He asked.

"Yeah, just not with you." Olette said and linked arms with Yuffie and walked by him.

Back at Namine's house, Namine sat at the kitchen counter starring at the computer screen. She couldn't think of anything to write for her paper. She looked around the room and then spotted Aerith's laptop across the table. She looked back at her laptop and then back at Aerith's. She slid Aerith's laptop towards her and opened it. There was an icon on the right that was labeled 'Russian History AP'. She pulled the flash drive from her computer and put it in Aerith's. She copied the icon and pasted it into her flash drive folder. She heard the front door shut and she quickly took the flash drive out and closed Aerith's laptop and pushed it back to where it was. Right after, her mom and Aerith walked into the kitchen. Namine looked up at them. "How was the club?" She asked.

"Cold, no one knows how to use a thermostat. Did you eat?"

"Yeah, I made some pasta if you're hungry."

"I'm not eating pasta. I don't need to be depressed and fat." Aerith sniped at Namine.

"Good point; I'll make a salad once I'm done changing my clothes." Veronica said and headed upstairs. Aerith continued to look at Namine. "Cloud called." She said. Namine just looked at her. "He told me you went to see him. At first, I wasn't really sure why he was calling me to tell me this but then I realized he's trying to cover up his tracks and yours. Like I'm supposed to believe you went there just to clear your name? You two deserve each other. I thought I was pathetic." Aerith said and stormed out of the room. Namine just shook her head and back at the flash drive. She put the flash drive in and opened up the file. She opened up her email account and sent the file to her teacher after changing her name on the paper. Namine closed her laptop and left the house to head to Lea's party.

Once Namine got there, she saw Xion, Kairi and Olette standing together. Namine walked up to them.

"He tackled Rai? What was Roxas doing in the girl's locker room anyway?" Xion asked.

"He's a perv. We caught him peeping on us when we were changing." Kairi said.

"No, we didn't catch him. Aqua did." Olette said.

"Wait, what's going on?" Namine asked.

"Roxas fought Rai in the girl's locker room yesterday over Olette." Xion said.

"It wasn't over me. He was just helping me."

"For what? If we didn't ask you about Rai, would you have told us? Roxas is not a good guy."

"Well, if he's such a bad guy then why did he take the fall for us?"

"Maybe we should talk about this when we're all alone." Namine suggested.

"I have to go anyway." Xion said.

"Where are you going?"

"I promised my mom I'd go to her photo gallery tonight."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go find Yuffie." Olette said. Kairi followed behind her. Namine stood there alone and saw a figure in the dark. She couldn't be clear but she was sure it was Roxas. Then she remembered what else happened the night of the 'Larxene thing'. Aqua was yelling at Roxas, telling him to take the fall for her or she would tell everyone about his secret. Roxas just stood there and didn't say anything. Aqua walked back and saw Namine standing there watching them. "What did you hear?" She asked.

"Nothing." Namine said and walked back to the other girls with Aqua.

"So what's going on?" Olette asked.

"Its fine, we were never here." Aqua said.

"But what if we just tell them it was an accident?" Kairi said.

"Damn it, Kairi. It's done. Don't make me sorry I ever included you in the first place. You better keep your mouth shut unless you wanna go back to spending your weekends alone, playing DDR and eating a jumbo bag of chips."

"Aqua!" Xion yelled. Aqua looked at Kairi who looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"I'm sorry, Kairi. I didn't mean that. I just freaked out. This is bad guys. I never would've done it if I thought someone was in there. Can we just go?" Aqua said and started walking back towards Olette's house. Namine stopped and turned around to see a cop car driving away with Roxas in the back of it. In the present, Namine continued to look at Roxas in the dark. He was just standing there, starring back at her. Namine turned around and ran back inside the party. She walked in and saw Olette and Yuffie getting into the photo booth. She smiled and walked around the party. When Olette and Yuffie sat on the seat inside, they began fixing their hair.

"If this comes out decent, I'm going to cut it out and paste it on my driver's license." Yuffie said.

"Yeah, they're always scary. Yours can't be that bad. Mine's probably worse." Olette said.

"No way. What could be wrong with yours?" Yuffie looked down and blushed. "I mean you're crazy beautiful." Olette blushed too. She turned away and began searching for the button to start the photo booth. "Is it this button?" Olette asked, pointing to the red button and then pressed it. The photo booth took four photos and they posed for three. When the photo booth counted down to take the last picture, Olette had her hand on Yuffie's cheek and Yuffie leaned in towards her and their lips met. Olette pulled away and Yuffie climbed out. Olette followed behind her, pretending like nothing happened. Before they climbed out, someone walked by and stole the pictures from the photo booth. Olette turned around to see if they were there and she frantically started looking for them.

"Where are the photos?" Olette asked.

"I told you I break cameras." Yuffie giggled. "It probably just ran out of paper." Olette continued searching for them, ignoring Yuffie. She couldn't let anyone see them. If they did, people would see a picture of them kissing.

Kairi stood by the foosball table as Seifer was playing with one of his friends. Seifer threw his hands in the air in defeat.

"How could I lose?" Seifer exclaimed.

"Better luck next time." Kairi giggled. Seifer turned towards Kairi.

"I have a better idea anyway." He said and grabbed Kairi's hand. He brought her outside and went out back with her into a barn. "What are we doing out here?" Kairi asked.

"You'll see." Seifer said and started kissing her. Kairi's eyes were open in shock and she tried pushing him off of her.

"Seifer, I'm not ready for this." Kairi mumbled under his lips. She tried to push him away and he pushed her up against the wall.

"Seifer stop, please." She gave him one big push and he flew back a couple steps. His eyebrows furrowed together and in the blink of an eye he smacked Kairi across her face. Kairi held her hand to her cheek and looked at him in shock.

"You will do what I want, when I want. We're doing this now." Seifer said, angrily. Kairi didn't say anything and stood in complete shock. He tried to kiss her neck again and in seconds, Kairi took off. Seifer almost smacked into the wall and he saw that she was gone. He ran for her and caught up. He grabbed her arm and threw her on the ground. "I'll do it right here! I've waited too long for this." He yelled. Kairi covered her face as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Hey! Leave her alone!" Someone yelled. Kairi looked up to see the silhouette of no one other than Sora. Sora ran up towards them and pushed Seifer to the ground. He helped Kairi up and Kairi grabbed his hand and ran further from the house. Once they were out of sight, Kairi stopped to catch her breath. Sora looked at her.

"Hey are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine." Kairi said, hiding her face in the dark.

"You don't seem fine." Sora said and put his hand to her cheek. He wiped away a tear with his thumb. Kairi didn't know Sora all that well, but she couldn't help but leap into his arms. He was shocked but hugged her back. "Thank you." Kairi whispered. "Anytime." He said. They stayed there for a while. Kairi's heart beat so fast, faster than ever and she couldn't understand why. How come every time she saw him she felt butterflies in her stomach?

Earlier in the evening after Xion left the party, Xion walked into her mom's art gallery to see her parents talking to Meredith. Xion walked in confused. Her parents walked away from Meredith and she turned around to face Xion. She walked over to Xion and greeted her. "Hi, Xion," Meredith began but Xion stopped her. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean? Your mother invited me."

"You shouldn't be here. I saw the way you looked at my dad the other day. Leave my dad alone, find someone who is available. My dad isn't."

"Sweetie, I'm not in high school. You don't have any say in this." Meredith walked away in triumph and Xion stood there, speechless. She turned around and stormed out of the gallery. She got in her car and drove off. She didn't really know what she was thinking, all she knew was that she needed someone. She needed him. She pulled up in front of an apartment building and walked inside. She headed up the stairs and stopped at an apartment with '4B' in metal, nailed to the door. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door. The door opened and Riku came out. "Xion? What are you doing here?"

"Can I…can I come in?" She muttered, twiddling her thumbs together.

"I don't know if that's a good idea." He said.

"I'm sorry. This was a mistake. I just didn't know where else to go." Xion turned to walk away and Riku stopped her.

"Are you okay? Do you need me to drive you home?"

"No, that's the last place I wanna be right now."

"Why? What happened?"

"Can we just be here for a minute?" Xion stuttered. Riku pulled her in his arms and held her tight. Xion just wanted to stay like that forever. Tears fell from her eyes and onto Riku's shirt.

That night, Olette had just walked Yuffie home and was on the way home herself. As she was walking, she spotted Roxas sitting on his porch steps. She walked over towards him.

"I never got a chance to thank you. I mean, I'm not sure why you did it, but thanks." Olette said and continued walking. Roxas had a black look on his face and then he smiled. In the corner, Larxene sat on a rocking chair, rocking back and forth.

"Why was she thanking you?" Larxene asked.

"It's not what you think." Roxas said.

The next morning, the four girls met up in the woods again to find the perfect place for Aqua's memoriam.

"Last night I remembered that Aqua had something on Roxas and that's why he took the blame for us." Namine said.

"Why are you waiting until now to tell us?" Xion asked.

"I don't know. I guess I was scared. Aqua made me promise not to tell. I just thought if we stopped talking about that night it would just go away."

"Well it's not going away." Olette said.

Xion started looking around. "You know what? Why are we doing this here? We should do this somewhere in town where everyone can see it. Especially the person that did this to her." Xion said. Namine and Olette shook their heads in agreement. Xion looked over at Kairi for a response, who seemed dazed. "Kairi?"

"Oh, sorry I just had a rough night." Kairi said. Her phone beeped and she opened the text up, hoping that maybe it was Sora.

_Heads up hun, clumpy Kairi never gets the guy. –X_

"Who was that?" Namine asked.

"Oh, just my mom." Kairi giggled and stashed her phone. The girls walked ahead of her and she stood there, looking at her surroundings. Then she turned to walk to the girls.


	5. Can You Hear Me Now?

**Chapter 4: Can You Hear Me Now?**

Xion, Kairi, Namine and Olette walked to Sunset Hill to discuss what they were going to do for Aqua's memoriam. They reached the top of the hill and Xion stood in front of them.

"So the town is going to put a new bench up here, and we'll plant the flower beds. And there will be a pathway of art tiles." She said.

"Art tiles?" Kairi asked.

"Messages, pictures, memories of Aqua." Olette said.

"We should each do a tile." Xion said.

Namine looked down in her bag and pulled out a purple bracelet. Xion looked down at it.

"I found this in the woods that day. Sorry I didn't tell you guys." She said handing it to Xion. Xion looked at it and it was Aqua's bracelet. "I don't want the responsibility of holding it anymore."

"I don't want it." Xion said, handing it back.

"Seriously, take it." Namine said, handing it Olette. Kairi snatched it from Namine. "Look at us! We're acting like a bunch of babies!" Namine started thinking for a moment. "There's nothing that X can say or do without making trouble for herself."

"Are you sure it's a her?" Olette asked.

"Him, her? Does it make a difference?" Namine said, pulling her laptop out of her bag.

"What are you doing?" Xion asked.

"I'm blocking all unknown texts, emails or phone calls. Screw X." She said, typing on the laptop. "There! Who's next?" She said handing the laptop to Olette and she took it. Kairi looked over to Riku, riding his bike. "I spy with my little eye something that starts with F." She said, smiling. "Hey, Mr. Fitz!"

"Looking good, Mr. Fitz!" Namine yelled. Riku looked over to them and waved. Xion looked away, trying to hide the blush from her face. She took the laptop from Olette and hid her head in the laptop.

"There are some teachers you don't want to see on a bike and there are some that you do." Namine said with a big smile.

"I would not wanna see Mr. Gilardi on a bike." Kairi giggled.

"I wouldn't wanna see Mr. Gilardi in any kind of motion." Olette said.

"Your turn Kairi!" Xion said, trying to change the subject. Xion turned to Olette. "So have you talked to Rai?"

"Nothing to talk about."

"So you're really done?"

"Yeah, and it's okay." Olette smiled.

"Okay, if you say so."

"I wish we had a drum roll for this." Kairi said, while typing. "We are officially X proofed."

"Listen, all those little messages zipping through the air all around us." Namine said.

"This feels like a good thing." Xion said. Then a piece of paper blew towards them. Xion picked it up and it was a missing poster of Aqua. In red marker, across it, was 'ding dong the bitch is dead.' Xion looked at her friends in shock and she scrunched up the piece of paper and chucked it.

The next day at school, Olette saw Yuffie in the hallway. She tried to quickly walk away but Yuffie turned to see her. "Olette! I got something for you!" She yelled. Olette turned around towards her and Yuffie handed her a red scarf. "I saw this and totally thought of you."

"It's great, thank you." Olette said. "I have to get going to class."

"Okay, I'll see you later." Yuffie said, smiling.

Olette walked over to Namine, Kairi and Xion.

"Why didn't your parents take you to Traverse Town with them? You deserve some retail therapy too, Nam." Xion said.

"Not as much as Aerith."

"Oh, hot scarf Olette. Is it new?" Kairi asked.

"Oh, no." Olette said. Kairi's phone then started to ring. She pulled it out of her purse and then looked at in shock.

"Answer it! We know who it can't be from." Namine said.

"It's my dad…" Kairi said and walked away to take the call.

"Has she even talked to her dad since he left?" Olette asked.

"I don't know but we shouldn't stare. Let's go." Xion said.

Kairi stood in the corner, talking on the phone. "No dad, I don't have anything planned." Kairi said, smiling. "Yeah, I can come to dinner with you. I'll see you then." Kairi clicked the end button and smiled.

Xion walked down the hallway and looked inside Riku's classroom. She made sure he was alone and walked in. "Hi, I saw you the other day on your bike." She said. Riku looked up and smiled. "I know, I waved. I would've stopped but you weren't alone."

"Yeah, my friends thought you had nice legs." Xion said, blushing.

"What do you think?"

"I mean you do have nice legs…" Xion stuttered.

"That's not what I meant." Riku chuckled.

"Oh, it's a little awkward considering the circumstances."

"Xion, what are the circumstances? Please tell me, because this all new to me."

"I know me too. Maybe this isn't smart."

"I promise you, it's not. We need to talk though. I'm home tonight. I could make you one of two dishes I actually know how to cook. But I want to talk to you when I'm not looking at you over a desk or through Dan Farren's faux hawk." They both laughed. "What time?" Xion asked.

"Seven."

"I'll see you then." Xion said, smiling as she left the room. She headed to the cafeteria for lunch to meet with her friends. She got her tray and saw Kairi, Namine and Olette at one of the tables outside. She walked over to them and sat down next to Kairi.

"My dad wants me to go to dinner with him." Kairi said.

"Oh, that's great Kai." Namine smiled. Namine then felt a hand on shoulder. She turned around to see one of her teachers.

"Oh, hi Mr. Sheldrake!"

"Namine, I was going to tell you in class, remarkable job on that Russian history paper!"

"Oh, uh…it wasn't really a new idea." Namine stammered.

"I submitted it to the Golden Orchid."

"You what?!"

"There's an honorarium. You know, the real upside to winning an essay competition like that is how good it'll look on your college applications. We'll discuss it more later." He said, smiling and walked away. Namine put her head on the table.

"What's the golden orchid?" Xion asked.

"More academic bling for Nam." Olette giggled. Namine put her head back up and faked a giggle.

After lunch, Olette walked into her science class. She was the first one in there and she sat down at her desk. She looked up to see Roxas walk in the room. He stood at the teacher's desk, waiting. He turned to look at Olette. "Hi," He said.

"Hi, will you be in this lab?" Olette asked.

"Starting today." Roxas said. The classroom started to fill up with students and the teacher finally walked in. Roxas handed her a piece of paper, stating that he was in her class. There was one seat open and it was next to Olette. "Oh, no." Olette muttered. Roxas walked over to her. "Is it okay if I sit here and be your lab partner?" He asked.

"Yeah, sure." Olette said, faking a smile. Roxas sat down next to her and opened up his book. Olette glanced at him and then opened up hers. When she opened hers up, there were the pictures of Yuffie and her. She closed her book immediately, blushing. She was in complete shock. She didn't know how they could've ended up there.

After school, Xion walked in her front door and saw her mom, cooking. She approached her mom and smiled.

"Hi, mom."

"Hi, honey. Will you be joining us for dinner?" She asked.

"No, I'm actually going to have dinner at Namine's."

"Oh, okay. I guess it'll be just your dad and I tonight. Tidus won't be home either."

Xion thought about how devastated her mom would be if she found out about her dad. She remembered what Aqua told her once they found out. "You have to tell her!" Aqua yelled.

"No, I can't Aqua."

"You have to! You just caught your dad making out with someone other than your mom!"

Xion thought about what Aqua said. Even though she knew her mom would be sad, Aqua was right. It's the right thing to do.

"Mom, I have to-," Xion started but heard the front door open. Her dad walked in. "Hi, girls!" He said, smiling. "Hi, dad." Xion said. She walked away as her dad approached her mom.

At Namine's house, Kairi was trying on Namine's clothes. Namine handed her a blazer.

"Gee, I wish I had a sister smart enough to copy off of." Kairi said.

"Using Aerith's paper was supposed to be a stopgap. If I ask Mr. Sheldrake to withdraw the paper, he'll know something is wrong."

"Namine, what makes you so sure you're going to win the competition anyway?" Kairi asked. Namine just looked at her with her eyebrows raised. Kairi then giggled. "Oh, right you're a Hastings. It's in your DNA." Kairi turned to look at herself in the mirror. "This has to be the perfect outfit. My dad hasn't seen me since I lost the weight."

"That jacket isn't really you."

"Then it's perfect. Namine, have you beeped?"

"No, we blocked whoever it was."

"Yeah, me neither." Kairi smiled.

Olette walked down the street with her books in hand. She saw Yuffie working at the diner ahead. "Hey!" Yuffie called to her. "Hi," Olette said. Olette pulled the pictures out of her chemistry book and showed them to Yuffie.

"Oh, great you found them!"

"Did you put them in my chemistry book? I won't be mad."

"No, what's there to be angry about? We look cute."

"Somebody must have grabbed them at the party."

"It's not a big deal."

"Yuffie, this is a picture of us _kissing_. Don't you understand?"

"Yeah." Yuffie said with her arms crossed. She turned and walked back to the tables she was cleaning.

"Yuffie…"

"I have to get back to work." Yuffie said with a disappointed look on her face. Olette shoved the pictures back in her book and stormed off in the other direction.

Kairi walked into the restaurant to meet her dad, Tom. She walked inside and saw him sitting at one of the tables. He looked up to see her and he smiled. "Hi, Kairi!"

"Dad!" Kairi walked over and hugged him.

"There's barely anything left to hug. I missed you."

"I missed you too, dad." Kairi said smiling. She pulled away and sat down at the table and her dad sat across from her. "We have some things we need to talk about." He said.

"Oh, really? Like what?" Kairi asked, folding her hands on the table. Her dad looked up and smiled.

"Ah, there you are!" He said, standing up. Kairi turned around to see two girls. One was older and the other was about her age. Her dad and the two girls turned to her.

"Kairi, this is my fiancé, Isabel and her daughter, Yuna." Kairi was shocked and put on a fake smile as they both waved to her. Isabel reached down to shake her hand. "Kairi, it's a pleasure to meet you." Isabel said, smiling.

"I thought it was time we all met." Tom said. Kairi sat there in complete shock. She was almost hoping her father came there to talk to her about him moving back home. Her heart sank but she put on a fake smile and pretended to be happy.

Xion knocked on Riku's door, with a big smile on her face. Riku answered and smiled at her.

"I'm glad you came." He said, welcoming Xion in. Xion walked in and looked at her surroundings. She looked over to see a type writer.

"You use this as a paper weight?" She joked. Riku closed the door and walked towards her.

"It's mostly just to remind there was literature before laptops. How are things at home?"

"Fine, I guess. My parents are having a date night."

"Well, maybe they're working things out."

"They can have all the alone time in the world, she's gonna be miserable when she finds out."

"Xion, has it ever occurred to you that she knows more than you think?"

"No, that's the worst part. She doesn't know at all."

"Well, maybe it's possible that your parents have come a mutual agreement and worked something out."

"What do you mean an agreement?" Xion looked at him and furrowed her eyebrows.

"Well, my parents split when I was 12 and it threw my brother and I threw a loop. Later I found out that they both had been cheating. They worked through it, but it was something else that killed their marriage."

"That's your family, not mine. What are you trying to tell me?"

"I'm trying to tell you even though your dad put you in this position, it's not your problem to fix."

"I'm not trying to fix it, I'm trying to deal with it!" Xion yelled.

"But they are the ones who should be dealing with it. You can't see it now, but your parents need to figure it out like adults."

"Oh, so now you're saying I'm not an adult? Like I'm not mature enough to deal with this?"

"I didn't say that."

"Yeah, that's exactly what you're saying. You said I'm a child and I should mind my own business."

"I can guarantee you that's not what I said."

"Well, if I'm such a child then why did you ask me here?"

"I asked you here because I don't see you as a child and we need to figure out what's going on between us."

"Okay, just leave my parents out of it."

"You came to me about your father, remember?"

"You know what? I think I made a mistake coming here." Xion grabbed her bag and headed to the door.

"I don't think you did." Riku said, and Xion turned to him.

"I think I did. It's not something an _adult_ would have done." Xion turned to the door and walked out, slamming it. Xion started to walk down the street, leaving Riku's apartment. She sighed and stopped in her tracks. She turned her body around and marched back upstairs to his apartment. She knocked on the door and Riku answered. "I don't understand how you can complain about me being immature! You don't know anything about my parents so don't say that they have some sort of arrangement! And you don't know me!" Xion yelled, storming into his apartment. Riku just starred at her.

"You're right. I really don't know anything about you." Riku said and leaned in to kiss her. "I want to though." He said before kissing her on the lips.

Later that night, Namine was in her kitchen on her laptop. The lights were dimmed low and it was really quiet with everyone gone. Suddenly she heard the back door slam. Namine jumped from her seat and reached for a knife from the counter. She hid it behind her back as she crept slowly towards the door. She hid around the corner to see who was coming in. Then, Cloud came stumbling through with a big potted plant. Namine put the knife down and sighed in relief but then looked angrily at Cloud.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" She asked. Cloud looked at her and smiled, handing her the plant.

"I picked this from the garden for you." Cloud said, slurring his words. Namine ignored him and didn't take the plant.

"You're drunk." Namine said. "I thought you were an axe murderer or something."

"I tried calling you, but you were blocking my number."

"No, I wasn't blocking you."

"I'm sorry."

"Cloud, you should really go."

"I've thought of nothing but you since you came to see me. I've been a coward. That ends tonight. I'm taking full responsibility. Summon your father." Cloud said with a smile on his face.

"I'm not summoning anybody. My parents are in Traverse Town with Aerith."

"Then I shall depart." Cloud turned to walk out but then stumbled backwards into Namine and the plant fell out of his arms. He landed on Namine and she tried to push him up but then started laughing.

"Your face is very fair." Cloud said.

"Do you want some coffee?" Namine asked, giggling.

"I'd rather not mix my beverages. I drank scotch."

"Okay, come on Cloud." Namine said, pushing Cloud off of her.

"Sorry about the mess."

"I'll clean it later. Why did you feel the need to get drunk to talk to my father?"

"For many complex, psychological reasons, but mainly because he scares the hell out of me."

"He's not that bad once you get to know him."

"I never wanted to hurt Aerith."

"Yeah, sometimes it looks like North and South Korea between us but she is my sister."

"Well, I think I've imposed enough."

"You can't drive like that."

"Oh, I'm not going far."

"Cloud, give me your keys. You can stay on the couch." Cloud bowed his head down and gave Namine the keys. She lead him over to the couch and turned off the lights. Cloud passed out instantly and Namine upstairs to her room.

The next day at school, Olette and Roxas were working on a lab together. Olette hadn't said a word to him since they started and Roxas looked at her.

"I know you're not crazy about having me as a lab partner." He said. Olette looked up at him shocked.

"No, I'm totally cool with it."

"But you wouldn't switch if you could? I understand. You have to be careful with who you get close to. I know people think I'm a freak around here. I can't do anything about that."

"But it's got to bother you? Idiots running, putting things in your locker, laughing at you, making up stuff about who you are."

"I didn't say it didn't get to me. I said I can't do anything about it. Like you said, they're idiots."

"Sorry."

"Do you notice how we keep having to say we're sorry to each other?"

"Sorry." Olette giggled.

"See what I mean?" Roxas laughed. They both smiled at each other. Olette started to think that maybe everyone was wrong about Roxas. He didn't seem like a bad guy at all.

Kairi got in her car after school and turned it on. She started changing the radio stations and began driving away from school. On the way home, her head started to spin. Everything going on in her life was crazy. Her dad was getting married, Aqua had been found brutally murdered, Seifer was not the guy she thought he was, and then there was Sora who came out of nowhere and instantly made her feel good when he was around. Everything was so messed up at the moment. At least she didn't have to worry about X messaging her anymore. Then her thoughts were interrupted when she heard her name over the radio.

"_This one goes out to Kairi from her best friend X."_ Kairi quickly turned the channel. She didn't even want to hear what song they were going to play. Kairi's hands started shaking as she clung to the steering wheel. It didn't matter if they blocked messages from X, they were still coming after them.

Olette walked outside the school and saw Yuffie walking down the steps. She chased after her.

"Yuffie, wait!" She yelled. Yuffie stopped in her tracks and turned towards Olette. They were standing alone next to the school steps.

"I don't know if I should hug you or shake hands. There's security cameras all around." Yuffie joked.

"I deserved that. I shouldn't have jumped on you about those pictures."

"Is this about the pictures or the kiss?"

"I liked the kiss, I just don't know what it means."

"You spend too much time wondering what everything means; a picture, a kiss, a scarf."

"I just have a lot going through my head right now. I'm just trying to figure it all out."

"What do you need?"

"A little time and space. Not just from you, I mean my mom and everyone."

"That's okay. I care about you so I'll wait."

"Okay, thanks."

"Good night." Yuffie said, walking away. Olette stood there and then started to head home. She had so much on her mind, she wasn't sure of how to juggle it all around.

Later that evening, Xion walked in her house. She was prepared to tell her mom the truth about her dad. She walked in to see her mom sitting on the couch, her back facing her.

"Mom, there's something really important that I need to tell you." Xion said. Ella stood up from the couch with a letter in her hand. The look on her face made Xion wonder what was wrong. She looked devastated. Ella handed her the letter without looking at her. Xion took the letter from her and read it.

_Dear Ella,_

_ Your husband, Byron, is involved with another woman and when I say involved I mean in a romantic way. This is not something recent. It started before your family went away and from the look of things, it may be starting up again now that you're back. I know this is hard to hear, but it is the truth. If you don't believe this about your husband, ask your daughter. She knows all about it._

_ Sincerely, X_

Xion stood in shock and put the letter down on the end stand next to the couch. Her mother stood in the kitchen, not making a peep or a move. Xion didn't know what else to do but run out of the house. Everything was going to change and fast.

Kairi and Namine walked in Namine's house. Kairi was telling Namine about what happened in her car.

"What are we gonna do about X? Now they're calling radio stations and making dedications?" Kairi said, throwing her hands around in a freaked out manner. Namine stood across the counter with her hands folded. "I don't know, Kai."

"You're the one who had the idea of shutting X out."

"And everyone went along with it." Namine stopped herself and she looked over at her porch doors to see that they were open. "Namine?" Kairi asked. Kairi turned around to see the doors open.

"Someone has been in the house!" Namine yelled and ran upstairs. Kairi followed behind her. They ran into Namine's room and saw her mirror. They both screamed. There was something written in red lipstick on the mirror.

_IT WON'T BE THAT EASY BITCHES -X_

"How the hell did they get in!?" Kairi yelled.

"I…I don't know." Namine stuttered. They both felt shaky and Namine went over to the mirror. "Is that lipstick?" Kairi asked.

"Yeah, it's jungle red, Aqua's favorite color. We need to call Xion and Olette now."


End file.
